The oldest gorilla in captivity, a 55-year-old female named Jenny, has died at the Dallas Zoo -her home for more than half a century, a spokesman said Friday.
Zoo officials decided to euthanize Jenny on Thursday night because of an inoperable tumor inher stomach. Jenny had stopped eating and drinking recently, and tests showed she was unlikely torecover, zoo spokesman Sean Greene said.
"The last couple of weeks we noticed that she hadn't been feeling all that great," Greenesaid. "It was a quality-of-life decision."
The International Species Information System, which maintains records on animals at 700institutions around the world, confirmed earlier this year that Jenny was the oldest gorilla in itsdatabase.
The zoo held a birthday bash in May to celebrate Jenny's longevity, complete with a cake madeof a frozen fruit treats for the guest of honor.
Jenny was said to have a sweet disposition and enjoyed being around people. She was oftenseen napping below a fig tree in her habitat.
"We had a tough time saying goodbye," said Todd Bowsher, curator of the zoo's mammals in theWilds of Africa exhibit.
"It's very sad that she's passed on, but what a great life she's had," said Kristen Lukas,curator of conservation and science at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio and the gorilla speciessurvival plan coordinator for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Jenny, a Western lowland gorilla, was born in the wild and was acquired by the zoo in 1957.She gave birth in 1965 to a female named Vicki, and officials aren't sure why she didn't conceiveagain. Vicki was sent to a Canadian zoo at age 5.
At the time of Jenny's death she was one of five gorillas at the Dallas Zoo.
Gorillas in the wild normally live to age 30 or 35, but they can survive years longer in azoo, with veterinary care and protection from predators. Still, of the roughly 360 gorillas inNorth American zoos, only four were over 50 as of this spring.
According to the International Species Information System, the oldest living gorilla is nowColo, a 51-year-old female at the Columbus Zoo who was the first gorilla born in captivity.
Just last month, another gorilla at the Dallas Zoo, 43-year-old Hercules, died afterundergoing a medical procedure for spinal disease.
In 2004, Dallas police shot and killed a 13-year-old gorilla named Jabari at the zoo after itjumped over a wall, bit three people and snatched up a toddler by his teeth. The enclosure wasremodeled and the city paid a fine to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
